Cleveland, OH-The Cleveland State men's basketball team held off a scrappy IU Indianapolis team on Saturday at the Wolstein Center 67-61 to win its sixth consecutive game. The Vikings went 5-for-5 in the recent home stretch with three of those wins coming against conference opponents. The Vikings improve to 10-6 overall and 4-1 in Horizon League play. IU Indy fell to 5-12 and 1-5.
The Vikings prevailed thanks to success in the paint as well as converting turnovers into points. CSU won the points in the paint battle 28-16 and forced 14 IU Indy turnovers. The Vikings converted those turnovers into 25 total points. CSU continued its recent success in limiting its own turnovers as the Vikings finished with just six for the game to go with 13 assists. Cleveland State finished with single-digit turnovers for the fifth game in a row.
Tahj Staveskie led the way for the Vikings offensively finishing with 20 points, tying his season high which came against Oakland on December 19. Staveskie shot 50 percent from the field as well as 50 percent from three-point range finishing 4-of-8 from deep. He was also a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line.
Tevin Smith and
Dylan Arnett finished with 15 points each. Smith was just 4-of-14 from the field but connected on 7-of-9 from the free throw line. He tied for the team lead with seven rebounds and added two assists and a steal. Arnett was a perfect 7-for-7 from the field including multiple dunks from point blank range that ignited the home crowd. He added three rebounds, an assist and a steal.
Cleveland State held the lead for 34 minutes, but it was a narrow margin for most of the afternoon. The lead changed hands twice and the score was tied seven times. The Jaguars led for less than a minute of game action but were within one possession numerous times and fought valiantly all the way to the end. Each time the Jaguars got within striking distance, Cleveland State came up with a key basket or defensive stop to halt the momentum.
Cleveland State got off to a fast start, scoring the first ten points of the game.
Reece Robinson got the Vikings on the board with a layup on the second offensive possession, and Smith and Arnett followed with back-to-back buckets by each to make it 10-0 CSU just under four minutes into the game.
IU Indy called a quick timeout to regroup, and the Jaguars responded with a 7-0 run to trim the deficit back to three points. The ten-point lead proved to be the largest margin Cleveland State would have all afternoon, as the game was played in single digits the rest of the way.
IU Indy eventually worked its way back to a tie with 5:55 remaining in the first half. The score stayed within one possession the rest of the half, with Smith sinking three free throws in the final 2:26 to give the Vikings a 33-30 edge going into halftime.
IU Indy drained a three on its opening possession of the second half to tie the score once again, and the two teams went back and forth over the next ten minutes. Cleveland State never surrendered the lead, and stretched it to two possessions three times, but each time the Jaguars responded with a basket on the other end to cut it back to a one-score game.
IU Indy worked back to a tie with seven minutes to play and the score deadlocked at 52. The Jaguars later took their lone lead of the game on a Timaris Brown three-pointer with 5:29 to play. Brown led the Jaguars with 19 points and his triple made it 56-55 IU Indy.
Staveskie sank two free throws on the ensuing Cleveland State possession to put the Vikings back in front by one with 4:33 to play. Cleveland State never trailed the rest of the way as
Je'Shawn Stevenson converted a Jaguar turnover into a driving layup on the next possession to make it 59-56 Vikings.
A Jaguar basket cut the lead to one again with 3:38 to play. Staveskie followed with a dagger three that capped a chaotic possession for the Vikings at the other end, with three offensive rebounds finally culminating in a kick-out to the Vikings' top three-point threat who buried it from the left side.
The key triple put the Vikings up four with just over two minutes to play and IU Indy would draw no closer than that the rest of the way. Smith iced the game at the free throw line, converting his last two attempts with 12 seconds to play which produced the final margin.
Cleveland State heads back on the road for the first time in a month next week, as the Vikings open a two-game road swing with a Wednesday night game at Robert Morris. Tip off from Moon Township, PA is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
